Episode 6: Jaws of the Worm (Part 3)
Iris swam thru the water, tearing seaweed out of the sea bottom. Her android strength made the process easy and soon she had her arms full of the green and yellow plants. Then, she swam towards the surface.
Iris walked up onto the beach. It was a grassy, isolated waterfront next to a small boathouse. "I got more seaweed for you Ray."
"Okay, place it in the distillery." Ray sat on a bench, working on his laptop. Creepy-Crawly sat opposite to him. Zoey sat on her knees in front of a small box-shaped machine made out of glass, standing on small pegs. Iris dumped down the seaweed into the apparatus. Zoey placed a hand under the machine and used her powers to decompose the plants. The gasses that escaped the rotting food went thru a specialized filter and where collected in a capsule above the box.
"Can you tell me again how this is supposed to stop the arrow worm?"
"I'll gladly do it Iris and not to just as needless exposition but because I just love explaining this plan to you." Ray mused. "As we know, arrow worms use ammonia to float. We're gonna give it so much ammonia it's forced to the surface. Then, I and CC will catch it in this net."
Creepy-Crawly pulled a net out of from behind the boathouse. "This is the kind of net they use to keep sharks away."
"Then what?" Iris asked.
"I prefer it to be humanly captured." Ray stated. "Nigel and Normal will fly in with a helicopter to capture it and takes it back to headquarters."
Zoey stood up and dusted off her hands. "I wonder why there is only one giant arrow worm and why it has returned after so many years."
"I got a few theories." Ray said. "This might be the spawning season and all the other years it showed up it was not just noticed or maybe it's here cause it's the only arrow worm that ever got a taste for human flesh while the others have retreated to the deep ocean."
"Or maybe it just ate the other ones." Creepy-Crawly suggested, smirking.
Ray smiled a bit. "That's a possibility."
"You know, there is a more direct way to make that worm consume ammonia."
"And what is that, Iris?" Ray asked.
"We can convince everyone to pee in the water." Iris said with a grin.
The sun was starting to descent. New cars rolled into the parking lot and young adults and teenagers joined those that were already at the beach.
Captain Carnbuckle looked at them with hateful eyes from aboard his trawler. "Idiots. Don't know they're walking right into the jaws of death. Dancing into it even." He said as he walked over to the other end of the deck. There was a large white sheet that covered something big. "Don't worry little idiots. Big ol' Carnbuckle will protect you." He pierced the sheet with his hook and pulled it aside. "With his big ol' harpoon!"
The weapon was indeed big and old. It was the kind of harpoon used for whaling a long time ago.
The sun eventually set over the beach and the night air filled with the beating sound of disco-music. The teens and young adults danced joyously under the canopies they've erected. They took snacks and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) from a long table they've set up. Some gathered in small cliques to talk.
Overall, everyone was having a good time. Well, everyone except Naomi. She stood out on the sandy beach and tried to call her son on her cellphone. "You got, too little credit on your cellphone to call…" The cellphone said and Naomi turned it off, irritated but her irritation quickly turned to worry.
Abby came up to her. "Any luck?"
Naomi sighed. "No. I'm really worried for them. What if we were too hard on them and they've ran away?"
"I'm sure they haven't." Abby reassured.
"But what if they've drowned!" Naomi exclaimed, desperately gripping Abby's sleeves.
"Okay, okay. Naomi just breathe, slowly." Abby said, putting a hand on Naomi's shoulder as the blonde girl went from hyperventilating to breathing calmly and evenly. "Good. Now, wait here a moment." Abby ran off but quickly returned with a bottle of soda. "Here, drink."
Abby handed her the bottle and Naomi drank deep. "Thank you, Abby." Naomi said with a light smile but it quickly faded. She sighed. "It's just that Ray have been acting so strange lately."
Abby tilted her head. "How strange?"
"He stays out late and when I ask him where he's been I can tell he's lying. He disappears often without even calling me to tell where he is. He doesn't confine in me like he used to and we used to be very close."
Abby smiled a bit. "Naomi, Ray just going thru the rebellious stage. I'm pretty sure nothing's wrong."
"I guess." Naomi sighed.
Abby did believe her own words, at first but then she started thinking. Ray and Zoey had been disappearing a lot lately which wasn't that different from her and her brother when they were young. And she remembered what they used to do when they disappeared.
Meanwhile, Chester was searching among the dancing teenagers under the canopy. He approached three guys that stood talking a tad aside from the rest. "Excuse me. Have you seen this girl?" Chester asked and showed them a photo of Zoey. "She's my daughter."
The three younger men shacked their heads.
"Maybe you've seen any of her friends? All of them are around sixteen. One is a boy with glasses and a black west. One is a dark-skinned girl with pigtails and the third dresses in a gothic attire and has a ponytail."
"Nah, sorry surfer-dude. We haven't seen 'em but if we do see 'em we'll tell them you were looking fou 'em." One of the teens said.
Chester nodded. "Thanks." He walked away, mumbling to himself. "I'm no darn surfer."
"You dare me?"
At the end of a pier, right next to canopies, five friends was talking boisterously.
"Yeah, I dare you." One of them said.
"Okay." The first one said and shrugged. He then stripped down to his boxer shorts. "But the rest of you have to promise to come right down with me." Then he jumped into the water. When he emerged again, he guttered.
"Was it cold?" One of his friends asked with a grin.
"No but there's all this seaweed." He said and held up some green-yellow algae for the other to see. Despite this, the others soon jumped into the water as well, some with their clothes on. A few minutes later some girls in bikinis joined them.
Unfortunately, the teenager's tomfoolery hadn't gone unnoticed.
Iris jetted thru the water with the jet-boosters in her feet. "My radar system have picked up something big and fast, heading towards the beach. It must be the Arrow Worm." She spoke into her com-link.
"I guess the party has already started." Ray said as he and Creepy-Crawly flew in the sky above the water, holding the net between them. Zoey meanwhile was in the rowboat. She didn't really have any further role in Ray's plan but she wanted to be near just in case.
"I should be approaching the arrow worm now, although it's hard to see anything in this darkness, even less an animal with translucent skin." Iris said. The night had turned even the shallow waters dark. She did have her headlamps on which helped her see somewhat better. Her headlamps eventually caught sight of something colorful. Iris squinted her eyes to see better. It was the arrow worm, slowly making his way towards the beach. "I got visuals on the arrow worm, Ray. Or his entrails at least."
"Alright, just inject the ammonia and retreat. We don't want a rerun of the last time." Ray spoke over the com-link.
Iris swam closer to the tail end of the beast but just as she was about to touch it, the creatures sensors picked-up on her movements and with a single powerful flip with its tail, it speeded away. Iris growled in annoyance and jetted after it. When she almost cached up with the worm, the animal did another tail stroke and bolted out of reach. The hunt continued further up the bay. The two was almost as fast but the arrow worm accelerated much faster and his huge size allowed him to cover greater distances than small Iris. As the waters around Iris became shallower, they also became greener due to the algae. "Ray, he's moving into the algae bloom. Maybe it will deter him from the beach."
"After Zoey's and CC's experience, I doubt it but it may slow him down." Ray stated.
Ray was proven right (as usual) when the arrow worm slowed down, trying to orientate himself in the thick plant matter. Iris was first hopeful that this would be her window of opportunity when suddenly her radar picked up on something, something that made her very nervous. "Ray, my radar is picking up on something. It's really big and is approaching really fast."
"Yeah, I think I can guess what it is." Ray stated sarcastically as he, Creepy-Crawly and Zoey stared in disbelief as Captain Carnbuckle's giant trawler came towards them.
Carnbuckle himself stood atop the deck, prancing in front of the harpoon like a madman. "Don't worry you little idiots! Uncle Carnbuckle will save you're asses!" The one handed fisher shouted.
Seeing the trawler and hearing the onehanded captain's insane rant, people (including Abby, Naomi and Chester) started gathering by the shoreline to stare at him.
"You tourists never knew the dangers of coming here but I'll be your salvation! You will go on to throw candy wrappers and baby dippers on my beach knowing what one brave man did!"
Naomi sighed and shook her head. "What is that poor man gonna do now?"
The arrow worm speeded off again, right past Carnbuckles giant boat. Iris scowled and jetted after the worm hoping she could get past the boat in time but her hope was premature. The bow of Carnbuckle's giant trawler rammed into Iris with a laud *dudunk* and sent her body tumbling underneath the hull.
"IRIS! IRIS!" Ray shouted into his Grossometer. For the second he was overcome with concern for his robotic friend.
At first, only static came out of the little device but soon he heard that spirited voice. "Ray, I'm fine or rather my body is fine."
"Sorry, keeps forgetting." Ray mused.
"We got a problem thou. The capsule broke. The ammonia leaked out." Iris stated.
"Then we got to abort the mission." Ray said.
"Ray, there are people in the water!" Creepy-Crawly shouted and pointed at the bathers by the pier.
Ray blinked before speaking into the Grossometer. "Iris, do you still have radar on that worm?"
"Yeah, he's still heading for the beach."
"Come on CC." Ray ordered and the two flew towards the pier.
Zoey on the boat meanwhile grew frustrated. There was a giant sea monster in the water and her friends was risking life and limb to save people while she couldn't do a thing. Then Zoey realized there was something she could do. She scowled determined before jumping headfirst into the water.
The arrow worm kept swimming thru the algae rich water. It didn't swim from side to side like a fish but in short, rapid movements. The pier and the teenagers were coming up ahead. His eyesight was poor. He could only tell the shadows from the light but the vibrations of his unsuspected prey was dead on. The predator got himself in position, as close as it dared to come. Even if the algae didn't cover him, the teens would probably not notice a transparent animal in the dark of the night. He opened his gulf and water started pouring in.
Then just as he was about to strike, Ray and Creepy-Crawly swooped down and scooped up all the people in the water with their large net. The first reaction of the teenagers where to cheer since they thought this was some kind of elaborate stunt but it soon turned to screams of fear when the arrow worm launched itself out of the water like a performing orca. Its jaws cut right thru the net and the teenagers fell back into the water. The people at the beach immediately gathered at the shoreline, shouting for the people in the water to come up. The ones in the water panicked and their violent splashing and struggling became too much for the arrow worm's sensors. He needed to retreat and come back.
Ray and Creepy-Crawly looked disappointed at their respective halves of the shredded net before looking at one another. "I thought you said the net would hold." Creepy-Crawly exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to read the documented bite force of A NINE METER LONG ARROW WORM!" Ray hollered sarcastically. They then looked down, worried for the people in the water. Ray and Creepy-Crawly dropped their parts of the net and dove down to save as many as they could.
The arrow worm got into position again but by the time it taken it to retreat and return, most of the swimmers had made it to shore already. Everyone except one. A guy that seemed to be in the middle of a panic attack. The arrow worm approached him but just as he was ready to strike, a harpoon sliced thru the water. The metal weapon missed the giant predator by mere inches but it was enough to scare the worm into retreating.
That was when the giant predator felt something thru the water. Vibrations of something smaller that was struggling. It was coming from deeper water. It also smelled of rot. Frightened, sickly and isolated, it was perfect prey. The arrow worm found the target irresistible and turned away from the shore, heading towards the ocean.
"Gosh darn it! I missed and now it's moved on to deeper water. How will I catch the damn thing now?" Carnbuckle lamented furiously as the harpoon retracted into its barrel.
Iris popped her head out of the water next to Carnbuckle's boat. She activated the jet-boosters in her feet, flew straight out of the water and landed on the deck. She carefully walked up to Carnbuckle and tapped him on the shoulder.
Carnbuckle got so surprised he almost hit her but once he saw it was only Iris he calmed down, a little. "By the tarnation, what you doing here and how did you get onboard?"
"You want to catch that arrow worm right?" Iris asked with a monotone voice.
Carnbuckle blinked. "If that's what that sea monster is called, yes but he's fled to deeper waters so I can't detect it."
"Then maybe we could help each other." Iris said. She turned off her hologram disguise, revealing her true android form.
Carnbuckle gasped and stepped back. "What the hell are you? Some kind of robot-person?"
"I prefer android but you can call me IRIS as in Intelligent Robotics & Information System. Really, I'm just a girl." She jumped up onto the harpoon launcher, sitting like some kind of monkey on all four and turned on her headlights. "With my radar and my headlights I'll find it for you." Iris observed the bay, west to east, until her eyes landed on something worrying. Their rowboat. "Zoey!" Iris exclaimed. "She was supposed to stay in that boat so where is she?" She called her on Zoey's Grossometer but got no answer. "Got to call Ray."
Ray heard his Grossometer ring so he picked it up.
"Ray, I can't find Zoey anywhere! She is not in the boat. I think she jumped into the water!" Iris's voice cried out in worry. Without another word, Ray turned off the Grossometer, turned around and jetted after his cousin. Creepy-Crawly flew after him as fast as she could.
Abby meanwhile stood on the beach with her arms crossed, eyeing the flying Grossologists. They were too far away for her to identify them and it was too dark to see Creepy-Crawly's wings so she just assumed they both had jetpacks. Still, she recognized a slimesuit when she saw one. "So the Grossologists are here but my daughter and my nephew aren't? A coincidence?" Abby whispered to herself.
The arrow worm swam towards it target. Its visible stomach growled with anticipation. What the massive predator didn't notice thou was that all the green algae surrounding it had died and decayed, sinking to the bottom. It finally find the prey that had caused those wonderful sensations.
It was Zoey. She was floating just above the sea floor with a giant garn of seaweed in her arms. She used her powers to keep the garn in a constant state of decay.
The arrow worm got into position in front of Zoey, its tail pointing upwards. Opening its mouth, it started sucking in the water.
That was when Zoey put her plan into motion. She completely rotted the bundle of seaweed into its most basic chemical components (among them, ammonia) and released it. The ball of chemicals was quickly sucked into the mouth of the arrow worm. The large sea creature wriggled, feeling like he's gotten poisoned. He then felt himself getting lighter as his cells filled with ammonia and he headed towards the surface.
Unfortunately, when he swam upwards, his tail flipper hit Zoey over the head. Zoey's world spun for a second and then she blacked out.
The arrow worm had come to the surface but this wasn't where it wanted to be. It wanted to dive, to hide and get healthier but couldn't. It was as if the water itself was fighting him. Suddenly his sensitive eyes was hit by a strong ray of light.
The light was coming from Iris on Carnbuckle's trawler. "I got him my sights captain. Fire when ready!"
The old fisherman grabbed a hold of the harpoon's handles and aimed it right at the monstrous arrow worm. "Smile at this you son of a…" He pressed down a button, firing the harpoon.
The harpoon pierced thru the arrow worm's head. A surge of pain shot thru the creature's body. He started splashing, struggling in the water, twisting and turning around the metallic object stuck in its head. Finally thou, the animal's body stiffen and its invisible skin turned into a yellowish white.
It was dead.
The harpoon retracted back to the boat, hauling the dead arrow worm with it. The animal became hanging from the bow. Iris and Carnbuckle looked down at it from the deck. "For you Shaggy, for you." Carnbuckle muttered with a smile.
Ray and Creepy-Crawly arrived at where Zoey had last been seen. "ZOEY! ZOEY!" Ray called out but got no response from his cousin.
"She must be underwater!" Creepy-Crawly stated.
Ray didn't hesitate. He shut off his jetpack and fell into the water before diving under the surface, determined to find Zoey.
Creepy-Crawly meanwhile remained hovering just above the water. "Come on CC, do something!" Creepy-Crawly whispered to herself. "Don't just fly up here like a cowardly fly scared of the swapper. If I don't do something, Zoey might die and if Ray saves her, that jerk will never let me hear the end of it." Creepy-Crawly took a deep breath, flew in a loop and dove head first into the dark water.
As soon as she was in the water, her worst fears were realized. Her wings became wet and heavy and started sticking to her body. It was as if the water pressing itself against her. The poor light didn't allow her to see very far. If it hadn't been for her Grossologist goggles she wouldn't be able to see anything.
For some reason she expected her cousin, Crustacea to appear out of the darkness.
She did have one advantage thou, her keen sense of smell. She could pick up on Zoey's distinct odor. She tried to remember the techniques Abby and Zoey had tried to teach her. 'Arms in, arms out. Arms in, arms out.' As she swam deeper and deeper she spotted Ray, heading back to the surface. 'Not good. He must have run out of air.'
She finally saw Zoey lying unconscious on the sea floor among the dead algae. However it was at this moment that Creepy-Crawly herself went out of air. She struggled with her decision. Either go back for air, risking Zoey's life or trying to reach Zoey and risk them both.
Suddenly, Creepy-Crawly felt something…odd. Two soft nubs with fine, bristle hair grew out on her back in-between her wings and suddenly she didn't feel the need to go back for air. Those were gills, similar to those on dragonfly larvae, she realized. With a new intake of oxygen charging her body she quickly swam down to Zoey. She cradled her body, pushed her feet against the sandy sea floor and launched herself towards the surface.
The moment the insectoid girl broke thru the surface she instinctively gasped for air as her lungs immediately started working again. What was worrying thou, was that Zoey didn't.
"Zoey! CC! Thank god." Ray exclaimed as he swam up to them. "Give her to me. I can get her to safety fastest."
Creepy-Crawly didn't argue. She passed the unconscious redhead over to Ray. Ray then activated his jetpack and after an uneasy start he jetted out of the water, heading towards Carnbuckle's trawler. Leaving Creepy Crawly behind.
The Goth girl spread her wings above the water and tried to flap them in order to get airborne but her wings where just too soaked and heavy. "Okay, now I understand the purpose of swimming lessons." She sighed.
Ray Archer landed on Carnbuckle's boat and gently lowered his cousin down on the deck. Carnbuckle and Iris (now with her holo disguise on) saw them and was immediately worried for the red haired girl. "Zoey!" Iris exclaimed and ran to her friends with Carnbuckle plodding after.
Ray opened Zoey's mouth and started breathing into her. He then pressed on her chest three times before continuing breathing into her mouth. Suddenly, Zoey awoke with a gasp and Ray was quick to turn her on her side so she could throw up all the water she'd swallowed.
"Zoey, are you okay? How are you feeling?" Iris asked scared.
Zoey clicked her tongue against her palate. "Salty."
"Oh thank god." Ray exclaimed and hugged her. "Zoey, what were you doing?"
"After Iris's needle broke I knew I needed to do something to save your plan so I jumped into the water and rotted the algae. Then I sent it into the worm's mouth and he couldn't keep his buoyancy stable, like you predicted." Zoey explained.
"Well, I don't know what half of that means but the worms dead now." Carnbuckle said, thumbing to the edge of the boat.
The Grossologists and the fisherman walked over to the bow, looking down at the dead sea creature. "I had hoped to capture it humanely."
"huh, hippie." Carnbuckle huffed.
"Well, you can't win them all but in a way your plan worked." Iris said. "You were right to believe that the arrow wouldn't be able to filter out all that extra ammonia."
At those words, Ray suddenly tensed up. He looked at Iris with wide questioning eyes. "Filter out." Then it all dawned on him.
'Horrible. I can't figure out these cylinders.'
"…my joints are filled with air to make me lighter. I just have to empty them."
"Arrow Worms can also regulate their buoyancy by filling up and expelling ammonia thru their cells."
'The ones Iris found in my dad's body. I can't figure out what they are.'
At that moment, Ray realized something. "They're filters."
Iris blinked. "Um, what?"
Ray's dumbfounded face turned into the largest smile Iris had ever seen. "They're filters!" He shouted happily before grabbing Iris's arms and spinning her around in a celebratory dance, all while singing. "They're filters, they're filters, they're filters." He then sent Iris spinning like a ballerina before making a summersault across the deck while once again joyfully shouting, "They're filters!"
"Is he always like this?" Carnbuckle asked.
"No, sometimes he gets weird." Zoey joked.
"Hello!" A female voice called out. The others looked out over the gunwale. It was Creepy-Crawler swimming in the water. "Don't fire that harpoon at me or something but can you please fish me up?"
Zoey cupped her mouth and shouted down at her. "CC, your swimming. I'm very proud of you."
Creepy-Crawly smiled. "It's all thanks to the gills that's sprouted out of my back…and two very talented instructors."
When Carnbuckle's ship came back to the shore, the people on the beach cheered when they saw the body of the sea monster hanging from the hull. "You captured the sea monster!"
"Carnbuckle!"
"Carnbuckle's a real hero!"
"Whoow, we love you!"
Carnbuckle chuckled as he watched all the teenagers that were praising him. "Well, look at that. It seems like we're all…" When he turned around he realized that Ray, Iris, Zoey and Creepy-Crawly were gone. "…heroes now."
"Okay, that it. We don't know where the kids are and a sea monster almost ate some tourists just a few moments ago. I'm calling the coast guard." Abby exclaimed and took up her cellphone. Her husband and sister-in-law was by her side, a stone throw away from the commotion at the shore.
"Hold that call, honey." Chester said, placing a hand on her hand.
"Why?" Abby asked and Chester pointed in a certain direction. He pointed at their children as they made their way towards them. Ray, Zoey, Creepy-Crawly and Iris were all now wearing their swim outfits again.
"Ray!" Naomi cried out and ran up to her son, giving him a big hug.
Chester did the same, hugging Zoey and patting her head. "I'm so glad your back, sweetie."
"Where were you?" Naomi asked harshly, she was a worried parent after all.
Ashamed, Ray scratched the back of his head. "Well, you know. We just wanted to get away for a while and then we got lost and yeah…"
"Also, we wanted to go to the party." Creepy-Crawly added.
Abby stepped up to them, looming over the kids with her arms crossed over her chest and a scowl on her lips. "You realize you are in trouble, right?" She said, looking at Zoey and Creepy-Crawly. "Not only did you run away but you involved Iris as well. What do you think her parents would say if something happened to her?"
"Yes, mom. We understand." Zoey said.
Creepy-Crawly lowered her head in shame. "Yes, Mrs. Archer."
Abby then smiled, got down on her knees and gave both of them a big hug. "Good, I'm really happy your both okay." She let go of them. "Now let's change so we can drive home."
After that the four kids nodded and started marching towards the dressing rooms, the adults noticed that Creepy-Crawly was hauling something in a rope behind her back. "Um, what's that?" Chester asked, pointing at what was tied at the other end of the rope.
It was the upper half of Iris's old body. Now just a hollow metal dummy.
"I don't know. Some hunk of junk I found in the ocean." Creepy-Crawly shrugged. She smirked a bit. "Hey, am I the only one thinking to draw a mustache on this thing?"
"Oh, you think I would look good with one?" Iris asked.
The next day, the team was gathered in the gaglab. Zoey and Iris sat on the couch while Creepy-Crawly stood behind them with her arms resting atop the couch's backside and LabRat sat in his wheelchair. Ray meanwhile, stood in front of them with a large computer screen behind him which showcased the cylinders they had discovered in Far-Ty's body.
"…therefor I can only conclude that these hollow, mechanical cylinders are filters of some sort. They're filtering out methane and carbon gases. Fart-Filters if you will." Ray finished after an almost 30 minute lecture.
"That would explained a few things." LabRat said and brought up two images on the screen. One of Fartor and one of Far-Ty. "While Far-Ty do have some similarities to other methane-breathers like his morbid skin color and lack of hair, he's not fat or bloated the way Fartor is."
"Why would Far-Ty do that?" Creepy-Crawly asked, tilting her head a bit.
"No, you don't understand!" Ray exclaimed. "Far-Ty didn't build these. My father, Ty Archer did. He must have known he couldn't prevent the Far-Ty personality from taking over so he created these as a precaution. I don't think Far-Ty is an actual methane-breather at all. I think he only believes that he needs to breath fart-gas but in actuality he breathes oxygen just like the rest of us."
Creepy-Crawly smirked a bit, looking down at Zoey. "Just like Zoey thinks she needs to cover up her powers when really she has total control over them."
Zoey smirked back. "Or how CC thinks there's something risky about the water when in fact she does pretty well in it."
"Exactly but there's more than that." Ray said. A smile grew on his face. "I think that with these filters my dad created an Achilles heel, a backup plan for whoever would be to confronting Far-Ty in the future. I think we can use this the next time we meet Far-Ty to bring my dad back." Ray looked up at the blueprints of the filter on the screen. There was glow in his eyes and a hopeful smile on his lips.
He had never been so certain. He would defeat Far-Ty and he would make his family whole again.
A few days later at the beach.
"How did you know that the harpoon would work?" A reporter asked and held her mic to Carnbuckle's face.
"Oh, old Betsy and I go way back. She've never disappointed me." Carnbuckle replied.
"Did you do it all alone or did you have any help?"
"I had help capturing that beast but they wish to remain anonymous." He answered.
"How do you feel about the health inspector filing for the abandoned factory farms to be torn down to prevent any more chemical spills?" The reporter asked.
"I don't know much about that but I guess it sounds good. Now, you have to excuse me, I think my coffees done." Carnbuckle said and walked back to his house which was now free from graffiti.
Carnbuckle's assumption was correct cause as soon as he stepped inside he heard the coffee maker whistle. He turned off the alarm and took a hold of the heated jug with his new mechanized hand prosthetic. The hand was silver colored and worked in perfect unison with his nervous system. Carnbuckle still felt a bit strange, having a robotic hand, an appendix which allowed him manipulate objects but never allowed him to feel them. Still, he knew he would get used to it. He was an old seadog, stubborn enough to get thru anything.
He sat down, took a sip from his cup and leaned back in his big comfortable armchair. Mounted on the wall behind him was the giant fangs of the arrow worm.
Author's Note:
Full disclosure, I actually don't know how the ammonia-gathering cells in Arrow Worms works. I know that they fill up whenever the animal needs to get to shallower water and empties when it needs to dive but I doubt that they would work the way they do in this story. See it as science-fiction. Actually, scientists don't know much about arrow worms at all, mostly because most of the studies done about the animal have been done in labs and not in the wild. I even heard about one new theory which suggests that arrow worms are actually mostly plant eaters. Of course this opens up a bunch of new questions like, are some arrow worm species predators and others vegetarians? Do they only eat meat some times of the year? Why have they developed such effective killing techniques if they'll mostly live on algae? We don't know (although it seems like they're omnivores). Actually I predict that in ten years most of the things I've written about arrow worms in this story will be outdated. Which is part of why I love the critters so much.
Also, sorry for the lampshading earlier in this chapter. I just realized I hadn't given a reason for why the monster had returned after all this time and I had no idea how to solve the plothole so I just sort of spat out a few suggestions. I promise I will be a bit more careful not to leave such illogical inconistancies in my work in the future.
We'll see when I'll be able to update this fic. Honestly I would like to take a rest from this so I can overview my plans for the later chapters, laying the groundworks for the future so to speak.
Hope you guys enjoyed this episode of Grossology Evolution and please, leave a review.